Before participating in Evanston Township High School’s Industry and Engineering Pathway, ETHS junior David Galatzer-Levy said his parents and friends viewed college as his only option after high school.
“(People) say if you don’t go to college you’ve failed and you aren’t going anywhere,” Galatzer-Levy said.
But after participating in the program, he said he believes it is possible to have a career without attending college.
College Career Coordinator Lun Ye Crim Barefield said ETHS encourages students to pursue some type of post-secondary training, but not necessarily college.
The Career Development Initiative and the College Career Center at ETHS work to educate students and parents about job options and direct students to the proper classes for certain jobs.
“There is a mismatch between employer needs and the employee pool out there,” said Ann Richards, ETHS Career Program Coordinator.
To close this gap between employer needs and employee skills, ETHS has programs called pathways that include classes, lab practice and job shadowing. Job shadowing allows students to spend time with someone already in a field that they are interested in pursuing.
ETHS has pathways for arts and communication; industry and engineering; health and human services; business management and information systems; and environmental and natural resources.
Some students on pharmacy technician internships go to a special ETHS class for eight weeks and intern for 10 weeks in a local Walgreens Drug Store. After the program the students can take the pharmacy technician licensing exam and might be eligible for Walgreens’ scholarships if they go to a university.
Other students take classes about child care and intern in local day care centers or in the ETHS day care center.
“Some realize it isn’t really what they want to do,” said Nancy Fuller, director of the child study experience program. “It may also give practical hands-on experience for parenting down the line.”
ETHS senior Heather Beardsley plans to attend college and possibly be a social worker. She has found being part of the health and human services pathway helpful in making future career decisions.
“Things that I thought I’d like to do, I don’t like,” she said.
Another alternative to post-secondary training is going straight to trade work after high school graduation.
Richard Peach, a 1964 ETHS graduate who now manages Dempster Auto Rebuilders, has hired ETHS students in the past. Peach works with the Career Development Initiative and the Chamber of Commerce to keep vocational training updated.
He said society still attaches a stigma to trades.
“You get a kind of disinterest when students talk about becoming plumbers,” he said. “Our communities don’t encourage students to become these things, but we all have to have our cars fixed or someone to put an addition onto our houses.”
And although it is important to make students aware of other types of post-secondary education, some jobs do require college degrees, Barefield said.
Galatzer-Levy said he still plans to attend college because he is interested in the physics aspects of industry and engineering.
“You may have the skill, but you still need the paper,” Barefield said.
